Royal Marine Says Standards are “Being Lowered” for Female Trainees and He Was Treated Like a Terrorist for Raising Concerns
A Royal Marine has gone public with his concerns that standards are being lowered for female trainees, claiming lives could be at risk and that he was treated like a terrorist for raising his worries. The Telegraph has more.
The Royal Marines have become embroiled in a row over the role of women on the front line.
In a highly unusual move, a serving member of the elite corps has publicly raised concerns about the possible lowering of standards for female trainees and claimed that lives could be at risk if Britain goes to war.
The commando has claimed that up to 1,000 of his fellow Marines backed a private letter to military chiefs raising fears that diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies were in danger of creating an “unrecognisable, weak and compromised version of the corps”.
The letter claimed that some women at the Commando Training Centre were being “artificially pushed through training”, resulting in what was described as “unearned paper-passes”.
In a video subsequently posted online, the commando – who does not give his name – said: “We believe that we have the high standards that we keep for [a] very important reason, which is to prevent Marines from being killed in dangerous situations when we go to war. … We are concerned that those standards are being dropped.”
He also alleges that after raising concerns with his chain of command about the lowering of physical fitness standards for female recruits, he was treated “like a terrorist and a criminal”.
This included being briefly held by police under counter-terrorism legislation.
“I ask them: ‘Am I being detained?’ They say: ‘No, you’re not being detained, but we’re holding you here under the Terrorism Act. And I’m just shaking my head in this instance. And I said: ‘Have I committed any acts of terrorism? Am I expected to commit any acts of terrorism?’ And they said: ‘No, we have you here because of your views,’” he states in the video.
A defence source said that the intervention of counter-terror police was unconnected with the petition or concerns about diversity, but related to the commando’s political views.
The ban on women serving in ground close combat roles was lifted by David Cameron, the then Prime Minister, in 2016.
Two years later, Gavin Williamson, the defence minister at the time, announced that all military roles, including those in the Marines, would be open to female recruits.
The Ministry of Defence denies any positive discrimination – pointing out that to date, not a single woman has completed the gruelling 32-week Royal Marines training.
Seven women have succeeded at the shorter 13-week All Arms Commando Course, including Royal Navy officer Lt Lily-Mae Fisher.
In June 2022, Lt Fisher earned her green beret, which is worn exclusively by those who pass the commando course. It is understood she is the only current serving female Royal Navy Commando.
A number of women do serve in the elite corps in other roles, while hundreds of others are attempting to enter the service.
Worth reading in full.
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This country doesn’t deserve the Royal Marines.
Variously attributed to Kipling, Churchill and Orwell…
“…We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
Thanks for that great quote! Here’s an interesting thing about it that Orwell did say in his 1945 “Notes on Nationalism”:
“Orwell wrote that Pacifists cannot accept the statement, “Those who ‘abjure’ violence can do so only because others are committing violence on their behalf.”
Nevertheless, Orwell added, the truth of the thing was “grossly obvious.”
“Rough Men Stand Ready”: Neither Churchill nor Orwell
As a former Royal, these deeply flawed DEI policies, based on ideological pseudo-scientific nonsense spawned from ‘Critical Theory’, have no place in the military. Simple logic dictates only a lowering of standards is the only way a biological woman can pass such a physically and mentally demanding course. I also question the seven women’s competency that have supposedly completed the AACC – I’m not convinced.
Well aren’t the vast majority of jobs in any armed forces non-combat? So there’s many opportunities available if you wish to embark on such a career and serve your country. There’s no need to ban women from combat roles if the entry requirements remain high and the same for everyone. This way hardly any ( if any at all ) women would make it through anyway, but at least they could say they had a fair crack at the whip then go and do some other role instead.
Correct. I agree, there’s no need to ban anyone and I’m not suggesting that they do. My point is the use (or weaponisation) of DEI policies will inevitably result in a lowering of standards to ‘tick a box’. It is statistically impossible for a woman to pass such a physically demanding course.
Yeah I know you aren’t. I’m just getting in before the usual ‘anti-women’ faction get here, lol. If the women are having to reach the same bar as the men ( therefore, being treated equally ) and they can’t manage it then they’ve had a fair shot at it but failed to make the grade, and I can’t see how any reasonable person can disagree with that. If a guy had a go at getting in the Marines and he failed, then he got wind of a woman that had passed but had lower requirements than he did then I’d say it would be *him*, in fact, that is entitled to feel wronged because that’s blatantly not fair. She’s had to reach a lower threshold than him. Unless he identified as a woman, of course…
I can’t think of a single positive thing to say about DEI. It should be abolished. Meritocracy over mediocrity, any day.
100%
The establishment will cheat them in. And the RM will be destroyed. We are done for until the Great Civil War sorts this shit out
All roles may end up in the front line. In the past cooks and admin personnel have had to pick up weapons and fight. Women cannot do that properly. They are less effective than men. No women in the front line if you want a powerful and dangerous military. We are fools.
Goes back to what I posted the other day. Entry requirements should be the same for all, regardless. Especially for the military, and more so the Marines, is it not even more imperative to sort the wheat from the chaff? There’ll be many would-be recruits failing to make the grade, I should imagine, including men.
Nobody should be given a leg-up, all treated equally ( otherwise it’d be “unequal opportunities” ), then nobody gets to cry about discrimination. That way, high standards are maintained and safety isn’t compromised.
What they’re doing to the guy, just for airing valid concerns, is totally OTT, but he’s gone and spoken out against the dreadful DEI ideology, which is a cardinal sin akin to publicly criticising someone’s religion, so now he must be made an example of. I saw his brother speak about his predicament and it’s seriously shit, what they’re putting him through. But this is how they treat patriots who sacrifice their lives for their country, so go figure!🤯 Small wonder the armed forces have such a recruitment/attrition problem.
Finally after months of looking they’ve finally managed to find a potential white extreme right wing terrorist.
/sarc
There is a war on. We can see from that the situation regarding female front line combatants. There are very few, often snipers; otherwise away from the frontline as pilots and artillery, UAV operators
‘Keeping most servicewomen away from the frontlines mitigates the risk of highly politicized casualties and is consistent with how women are used in other national militaries.
A July 2023 investigative report by Meduza and Mediazona suggests that almost none of Russia’s servicewomen are fighting in Ukraine. Of the nearly 27,000 Russian combatant deaths identified in the study, only four were women. In comparison, The Guardian reports—without providing a source—that more than 100 Ukrainian servicewomen have been killed since Russia’s invasion. This pales in comparison to the male Ukrainian soldiers estimated to have been killed.’
I can confirm that according to the National Maritime Museum, women have served in frontline roles since at least 1916.
At an exhibition on the WW1 naval Battle of Jutland, there was a commemorative plaque urging visitors to remember the men and women who were casualties.
FALSE! Don’t be deceived by more Communist Propaganda! Women were BANNED from combat roles on the front line in WW1, and the only British woman who served in a combat role fought in the SERBIAN ARMY, because she could not do so in Britain.
Flora Sandes: The only British woman to fight on the frontline in World War One – BBC News
Yes, there were many female casualties in WW1 and in all wars, because the women had INVALUABLE SUPPORT ROLES which put them in just as much danger as the men.
Read my post – it was a naval battle – you know the sort that is conducted in massive battleships full of men and boys.
You’re right that I jumped the gun there, so I searched for WW1 female casualties in the Royal Navy, assuming that Maritime Museum plaque didn’t give any specifics, and found that women only served in shore-based support roles, and the only Wrens casualty was this: Wrens: The history of the Women’s Royal Naval Service | Sky HISTORY TV Channel “The First Lord Admiral invited Dame Katharine Furse to form a Naval organisation for women. In 1917, the Women’s Royal Naval Service was formed, and on 29th November, George V approved the formation of the WRNS to support the admiralty when needed. Their roles were initially limited to clerical and domestic duties, but in time WRNS officers took on roles such as secretaries to admirals, telephone positions, writers and other ESSENTIAL SHORE-BASED JOBS across the service. In time they began to take on formerly male-only roles, such as aircraft handling. By the end of the First World War, there were 5,500 members of the Wrens, and sadly ONE LIFE HAD BEEN LOST, Josephine Carr of Cork, who died when the RMS Leinster was torpedoed. The WRNS was disbanded in 1919.” ************************************* “Born in Cork, Ireland, to Samuel and Kathleen Carr, Josephine enlisted… Read more »
Isn’t it still the case that the defence budget increases still includes selling off the two amphibious assault ships. Leaving the Royal Marines without their primary waggons.
It has been happening for decades. They abandoned the practice of certain chokeholds just in case they resulted in vascular restriction or damage to the windpipe. The pity of it is that the Marines were always pragmatic and responded appropriately to anything new that had to be learned. And they kept very high standards in regard to the discouragement of bullying and harassment These days it is about amphibious landings with a female empatheric nurturing touch, the love-bomb.
I am quite certain this Marine’s political views are shared by millions and millions throughout this country and the West in general.
This era of total madness needs to stop. Now.
Keep women out of the front line. They make us weak. Warriors dont have wombs. Our enemies know this.
“Warriors don’t have wombs”. Yes, and that’s the crucial point. How can a woman hold an effective combat role when she experiences a large loss of blood every month, weakening her physically, and causing embarrassing problems that require special treatment? It’s ridiculous that some feminists try to deny or dismiss this biological fact.
Captured female soldiers are also in danger of being raped by the enemy, as Israel knows very well.
The question is, when in hand-to-hand combat and all else being equal, would you rather be up against a 25yr old, 5’10”, 80kg man wearing a green beret or a 25yr old, 5’10”, 80kg woman wearing a green beret?
Mind you, knowing my luck I’d find out too late that she was a he who identified as a she…..
One good example of why this Royal Marine is absolutely right, along with the thousands who agree with him, comes from Australia, in anonymous testimony from a veteran of the Australian Special Forces I read some years ago. He described how his team were out on patrol in the mountains, all wearing heavy packs and other gear, when the only female member complained that she couldn’t carry her pack any longer in the searing heat, so he offered to carry it for her, in addition to his own, until she recovered her strength. Instead of staying with him in case he needed help, she energetically scampered away to join the others, leaving him far behind to struggle on alone. After a time, he could no longer bear the heat and exhaustion of the double weight, and found a bush to collapse under, lying there face down in that bit of shade, trying to recover enough strength to continue. He did eventually gather his strength and manage to keep struggling on until a male brother-in-arms came back to look for him and help. The female was relaxing with the others far ahead. This really sums up the problem of women in… Read more »